Sonic, Digital, Public Spaces: NetPark
Dr Frauke Behrendt discusses how sound and the digital occupy public spaces, drawing form her work developing the digital sculpture park NetPark, she highlights some of the issues of community and collective experience within a digital age.

The Nexus of Soundscape, Art, and Social Action
‘We must hear the acoustic environment as a musical composition and own responsibility for its composition.’ (R Murray Schafer, The Soundscape and the Tuning of the World)

Mapping Sound Maps
Sound mapping practices and projects have proliferated around the world in recent years. They offer a critical alternative to the emphasis on noise and noise pollution in current policy, scholarship and practice. Their multivalent character suggests new insights across disciplines: the study of urban sound; practices of (collaborative) sound art; sound in architectural and urban design practice; urban pedagogy and urban data and policy work.

Speaker: Conor McCafferty is a researcher based in Belfast. He is currently pursuing a PhD titled The Acoustic Mapping of Cities, with the Recomposing the City research group at Queen’s University Belfast led by Dr. Sarah Lappin and Dr. Gascia Ouzounian. Prior to commencing his PhD, Conor worked for six years with PLACE, a not for-profit architecture centre based in Belfast. https://twitter.com/comccaff

The Socialisation of Sound
Looking to place sound within an urban social context, framing and contextualising it as an important part of research on space, place and spatial practices. The study of audio cultures, noise cultures, and the soundscape are explored in very different fields of research with very little overlap: ethnomusicology, communications, history and the physical sciences. These all explore sound within society but in very different ways. The result is that while there is a large field of research into sound, there is often a separation between sound as a physical and scientific object and the social meaning of sound. This talk examines a project, which mapped the soundscape of The Smithfield area of Dublin city (an urban regenerated space) over four years with 84 teenagers, 5 older adults and through a series of auto-ethnographic walks. It presents some key findings from this study.

Zone of Tranquil Access
Discusses city planning and soundscape that orientates patterns of life, rather than the fabric of buildings. The Zones of Tranquility are discussed in relation to the sonic environment around the river Taff on its journey through Cardiff, where the project is currently being developed. Civic engagement is at three levels: participants, local
inhabitants, and the public. The participants become custodians of stretches of river. Their initial activity is to map the “zone of tranquil access” along the river, to which pedestrian access extends, and within which their minds are able to listen attentively without being crowded out by too much sound. They plot the zone’s properties onto a device called a “listening wheel” and onto a river map. The participants then shift their focus of listening to conversations with locals about the zone, its value to them, the sonic habitats that give rise to it, and their ecological health. The wheel and map, scaled up to fill a hall and mounted on tables, allow participants and locals to share their findings with one another. They become iconic features around which participants can engage the public about ideas for change.

A programme of video works and live sound performances exploring process and structure.

sainswn (wales/england)

new sonic realities based in the dynamics and experience of movement in, between and through place and non-place. entities and environments. trajectories and tracings. mediation and event. themes of immersion, transit, non-human intelligences, infrasonic and ultrasonic forces. the work is entirely based upon notions of listening as composition. reception as construction. perception as the primary generative.

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Live performance commission based around the concept of ‘source-code’ which became an econo sound installation exploring some of the theoretical writing about sound proposed by Salomé Voegelin in her Listening to Noise and Silence: toward a Philosophy of Sound Arts, Continuum Press, NY, ISBN: 9781441162076

The conference ended. People went off to get their flights. As an aside, a screening of the HERNoise film was announced. Few of the conference people made it down to the Belmont cinema.

playback > > Gentle exploratory sax improvisations.

Young men who were assisting in the conference, as technicians, welcoming participants etc are hanging out and chatting. A duo plays, reverbed out guitars with analog synth textures; a ten minute improvisation.

Male voice,” I wrote a song last week. From start to finish”.

playback > > Atonal punk guitars.

Male voice, “…Transylvania conquerors…”

“…live…” (Scottish accent).

This is not sound art. An independent cinema bar room. I go outside to smoke and chat to a fireman. Some talk about a collaboration with a member of the Canadian collective ‘Godspeed, You Black Emperor’.

Before coming here to the Belmont, I has an extended conversation with Jonty Harrison, which meant I missed the film screening. He feels ostracised by music, in the academic sense, and as if acousmatic music is being misappropriated by new media, pushing it into places he does not want it to go.

Male voice,”Do you know Angels of Light?”

After talking to Harrison, a short conversation with Dugal McKinnon who gave the presentation on vinyl. He does not own any, nor has he ever listened to music on vinyl. He comes from a background in ‘ants on a page’ composition.

Here, now, a single bearded, intense young man, on his knees, upon the floor, is creating a low distorted drone, somehow with a harmonica. The same model of Behringer desks that were present in the ‘academy’ during the conference are being used her, but attached to a string of guitar pedals. Delay, reverb, distortion. No granular synthesis here. A beautiful listening experience, a long way from the completed objects of Stollery, Harrison et al. Yet…

With a mouth harp, the tones pulse and build.

I think of tall trees, or a view over water. Breath as source, non-linguistics modulated by circuitry. The audience sits close – to performer, to each other. Active, eyes open. A small JVC camera records the action. There are framed pictures on the wall. A mono line of kazoo maintains spaced out beauty.

Neither high art or low.

But in-between. Less a blurring, more a contingent demarcation of personal experience.

Buzzzzz. Ice machine turns itself on.

The performer riffs against this. He is active in his spatial listening.

The magic has been broken.

I consider the body as the site of both oppression and agency. I feel totally alone in this town, yet sound has continued to connect me to a rich experiential sequence of intersecting aesthetic moments, punctuated by long periods of utter banality.

The acoustic, unamplified voice of the performer, a few moments ago an awkward disruption of the circuit-based abstracted beauty, now takes on its own meaning.

The entire audience is male.

“Walking through the sights” (sung)

In fact there are two women, both with partners.

“Walking through the skies on my bike”. (sung)

“Cheers. Thanks”.
Applause.

“Sigh”. From behind me.

The people here are active listeners. Well lit. Serious. Joking. Present. Young and old.

This is not academic music, is it? Is this then low? Fuck you.

Active state, undissipated. For this instant.
I feel no pain. For this instant.

Beating tones eternal. Electricity. Shifting slabs and delicate colours. I sense 600 years of change from summer to autumn, winter to spring.

In its way, this performance modifies what might be possible to hear, and see, in such a place as this. It sounds like part of here. It does not sound like apart from here. It does not sound like apart from hear.
The manager is counting coins from behind the bar.

Low grade Celestion speakers with appropriate sound streaming through them in situ.

Still the bar manager, oblivious, continues to count the silver.

Electricity from the performer, studied engagement. My view of him is blocked by a pillar, which in some ways, I am grateful for.

Work Details
Commissioned by Enfield Arts Unit, Enfield Council, North London. A week-long series of workshops in three different primary schools. Working with sculptors and costume designers, a procession performance was devised, based around a simple composed canon, able to be performed by children between the ages of 6 and 11. The event was structured around a tale from Mexican folklore, itself presented to the students as a soundpiece. This extract splices the narrative with the canon, as originally conceived, and the final realization by the school children as performed in a public park.

Proposal
Imagine 3 processions of costumed and masked primary pupils winding their way towards each other. Each procession contains representations one of the following elemental forces – SUN, WIND, or RAIN – each procession will be accompanied by pupils playing self-made instruments from recycled materials.

They converge in a park, within which pupils have created a sculpture trail along which the processions move. Their destination? A central meeting place, based around 3 larger dome sculptures also created by the students.

The three elemental processions gather around the central domes and create a celebratory and joyful storm of music, costume and sculpture.

The event ends in the early evening as dusk falls, with floating candle lanterns being floated along a little stream. As they disperse their beautiful light along the waterway, the pupils, parents, artists, teachers and community groups melt away into the night.

It is our intention to allow pupils, staff and parents from neighbouring schools to work together on an inclusive arts project which benefits the whole community of the Arnos Grove area. Using sound, light, costumes and masks, and instrument- making to transform a public space into a magical wonderland

The artists involved have a great deal of experience in facilitating workshops, working with young people and creating inclusive public events.

This group of artists have worked together on a wide range of projects – with schools and communities both in the U.K. and abroad. We are highly motivated, professional and responsible.

SUBORG

J Milo Taylor – Lead Artist / Instrument Making / Co-ordinator

Suborg’s role will be the instrument making and percussion workshops, and to provide co-ordination and administrative support to the project. Working with primary pupils, instruments will be constructed from recycled materials, teaching the pupils the art of creative thinking, positive problem solving and the fundamentals of rhythm.

The Light and Colour Workshop has great experience in facilitating workshops and installations with schools and community groups throughout the North London area. They are driven to share their joy in their work and to inspire vulnerable and excluded members of the community with an Edmonton-based Arts/learning studio. Their work combines light and sculpture to create beautiful objects accessible to all.

Tammara’s role as lead artist will be one of co-ordination of festival and facilitating the sculpture workshops. Zoë White will be working in conjunction with Tamarra– the sculptural side of their work will be in two strands:

1) Parent/teacher workshop
Introduction to sculptural skills / individual pieces.
Participants will be learning new skills and how to work with new materials (e.g. coloured wires, theatrical gels, tin cans, plastic bottles). Each participant will create their own small sculpture that interacts with one of the central elements. These will become the objects that line the sculptural trail and lead the procession to the central meeting area.

2) Collaborative work on central domes. The focus point of the procession will be three domes based around the elemental themes:

Sun dome – using material such as coloured gels, coloured wire. Imagine a sundial – i.e. the dome as an object that will cast shadows, projects coloured light and movement of light – ever-changing as the earth moves around the sun.

Wind dome – using material with reflective surfaces the smallest breeze will cause this structure to shimmer in the wind. The reflective flickering light marking the movement of the winds circulating within our environment.

Rain dome – by using water and cascading containers water will flow along the outside of this sculpture. Places where the water may rest or be channelled to create a flowing sound that will be calming and magical.

Pupils’ work will be incorporated around a durable and robust aluminium preconstructed frame. (Dimensions 1.5m high, 3m diameter, and 1.5m radius). Each dome can be split into two halves, creating special spaces for pupils to gather for story-telling, future workshops etc.

These structures will be permanent and portable; after the event, the domes will be moved from the public park and one installed in the grounds of each participating school, thus improving each schools environment, and giving them a permanent record of their activities during the project.

OPALA GROUP

Opala Group was founded in 2000 in London by 5 Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design graduates.

Opala works in three distinct areas:

Theatre Performance Development . We create plays, and make theatre workshops for children and grown-ups. This summer we took part in a unique and fantastic week long festival in Morocco, in which Suborg also played a part. We ran mask and costume making workshops and a street procession for the children of the town.

The Film Room is dedicated to promoting young film-makers. Evan Manifattori is a very talented and original film-maker with many outstanding short films to his name. We propose to film the workshops and the actual event, and to provide the involved parties with a high quality document of the project.

We have worked on a number of projects involving children throughout the years, both in the UK and abroad (Morocco, Spain, Yugoslavia, Austria). The workshops are designed to develop creativity and imagination through 3D expression of universal themes such as animals, seasons, fairy tale characters, elements etc.

We work with recycled materials that raise the awareness of environmental issues and help challenge the creativity in children by using known materials in unusual ways, e.g. cardboard boxes, plastic, packaging, wire etc.

Children will also learn about basic artistic techniques and materials through use of paint, brushes, glue, card, paper, scissors, staplers, painting on fabric, finger sawing, costume construction, etc.

At the end of a session each child will have created a mask and a costume of sun, wind or rain, to be worn during the procession. They will also carry flags and banners with the same elemental representations.

At the end of procession and the floating lantern ritual, children can keep their outfits and take them home, or the schools may decide to exhibit them on site.

Project documentation. Evan Manifattori – Film director. Camera.

We also propose to film one session from each school, and provide examples of work done during each of the workshops. The event will also be filmed and edited into a 15-25 minute documentary DVD of the event,

This work will be carried out to the highest standards and provide all the participating schools and community groups with an enduring record of their participation.